Tectonics
Marzieh Rostami; Morteza Talebian; Abbas Bahroudi
Abstract
Anticline axes in both orogenic belts of the Zagros and Kopeh Dagh are offset by NW-SE trending transvers faults. These faults are rotating anticlockwise due to their oblique orientation relative to maximum stress vector, causing shortening across the belt and elongation along the strike. The transverse ...
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Anticline axes in both orogenic belts of the Zagros and Kopeh Dagh are offset by NW-SE trending transvers faults. These faults are rotating anticlockwise due to their oblique orientation relative to maximum stress vector, causing shortening across the belt and elongation along the strike. The transverse faults move right laterally and known as prominent faults of Bajgiran, Quchan, Shokranlou, Baghan in central Kopeh Dagh; and Kazerun, Karehbas, Sabzpushan, Sarvestan in central Zagros. Faults in two regions, however, show different pattern of offset. We proposed two different physical models, consist of rotating blocks at the base overlaid by sand with and without silicon layers, resembling variation of stratigraphy in two belts. In the Zagros model, where we have more incompetent layers, offset on the basement faults causes bending of the fold axes at the surface prior to any offset. While in the Kopeh Dagh, where we have less incompetent layers, the fold axes are offset with no major change in their orientation.
M Foroutan; H. Nazari; B. Meyer; M. Sébrier; M. Fattahi; K. Le Dortz; M. Ghorashi; Kh. Hessami; M. R. Ghassemi; M. Talebian
Abstract
The evaluation of seismic potential along the Dehshir fault with 550-km length (by count of northern and southern splays) is critical considering that more than 3.5 million people live in cities and towns located at vicinity of the fault. The Dehshir fault is considered as westernmost limit ...
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The evaluation of seismic potential along the Dehshir fault with 550-km length (by count of northern and southern splays) is critical considering that more than 3.5 million people live in cities and towns located at vicinity of the fault. The Dehshir fault is considered as westernmost limit of N-striking dextral strike-slip faults set that slice Central and eastern Iran. Due to the lack of large recorded earthquakes (instrumental and historical) in Central Iran, access to seismic potential of active faults by studying the earthquake catalogs seems to be impossible. No instrumental earthquake has been recorded greater than mb 4.7 around the Dehshir fault and also historical data shows no evidence for occurrence of large earthquake around the fault. No sign of destruction in Marvast historical castle (at a less than 10 km far from the Dehshir fault) built in Islamic period (~700-1250), shows any remarkable seismic activity until 750-1300 years ago. However, several evidence of geomorphologic markers such as drainages, gullies, streams and alluvial fans offsets, represent activity of the Dehshir fault in Late Quaternary. Of Geomorphic evidence at Marvast and Harabarjan sites record dextral - slip on the Dehshir fault during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene as major movement with minor dip - slip component. Rake of the fault movement has been considered for assessing to amount of horizontal and vertical slip rate on the Dehshir fault. This value in the North Marvast site has been calculated ~10 degrees and according to right bank offset on the Marvast river is ~7 degrees with horizontal and vertical displacements of 13 m and 1.5 m, respectively. Combining cumulative offset markers with OSL dating implies the Dehshir fault in Late Pleistocene-Holocene time period slips at horizontal and vertical components about 1±0.3 and 0.1 mm yr-1, respectively. We observed a minimum dextral offset along the Marvast fault segment in west of Harabarjan about 2 m that allow us assuming the related magnitude and date of last large paleoearthquake on the Dehshir fault is about Mw 7 and 2000 years ago, respectively.
M. Fattahi; S. Rostami Mehraban; M. Talebian; A. Bahroudi; J. Hollingsworth; R. Walker
Abstract
Neyshabour (approximately 200,000 pop.) lies on the southern margin of the Binalud mountains in NE Iran. The city has been destroyed four times by major historical earthquakes (in 1209, 1270, 1389 and 1405 A.D.).Three large faults occur in the region. The Binalud and North Neyshabur faults ...
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Neyshabour (approximately 200,000 pop.) lies on the southern margin of the Binalud mountains in NE Iran. The city has been destroyed four times by major historical earthquakes (in 1209, 1270, 1389 and 1405 A.D.).Three large faults occur in the region. The Binalud and North Neyshabur faults lie at the foot of the Binalud range north of Neyshabour. The Neyshabour fault lies within the valley west of Neyshabour. The Neyshabour fault, which lies 10 km south of the North Neyshabur fault, is 50 km long thrust. At each end of the Neyshabour fault two young, 10 km-long, thrust segments occur. It is close to Neyshabour city; and is a probable source of the 1209 and 1405 earthquakes. It poses a substantial seismic risk to the city because of the potential for future activity. Slip rate is one of the important parameters for seismic hazard assessment which was determined using SRTM for offset measurement and OSL for age calculation. Luminescence was measured through 7 mm Hoya U-340 filters in a Risø (Model TL/OSL-DA-15) automated TL/OSL system. The equivalent dose (De) was obtained using the conventional quartz single aliquot regeneration method (Murray and Wintle, 2000). Twelve aliquots have been processed for the sample, of which only the aliquots were accepted that satisfied the SAR restrictions. De was estimated using analyst program. Age was calculated using a weighted mean De for the sample. The Dose rate was obtained using uranium, thorium and potassium concentrations, which were measured by Micro Nomand portable gamma spectrometer in field. The results are presented in Table 1. Dividing the displacement by the minimum and the maximum ages provided the slip rate to be 0.1-0.2mm/yr.
M. Shokri; M. Ghorashi; H. Nazari; R. Salamati; M. Talebian; J.-F. Ritz; H. Mohammad khani; M. Shahpasand zadeh
Abstract
The Astaneh fault with a length of more than 75 km is located in NW of Damghan. Morphotectonic investigation along the Astaneh fault and left - lateral displacement in quaternary deposits shows that, Astaneh is an active fault. It is necessary to recognize paleoseismicity of Astaneh fault because, this ...
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The Astaneh fault with a length of more than 75 km is located in NW of Damghan. Morphotectonic investigation along the Astaneh fault and left - lateral displacement in quaternary deposits shows that, Astaneh is an active fault. It is necessary to recognize paleoseismicity of Astaneh fault because, this fault is located in seismic zone of Komes historical earthquake with Ms=7.9 (Ambraseys & Melville, 1982). Many people (more than 45000) were killed in Damghan city in Komes historical earthquake. In this paper, 4-5 paleo events along the Astaneh fault are presented through paleoseismological investigation.
H. R. Nankali; B. Vosoughi; F. Soboutie; K. Hessami; M. Talebian
Abstract
A three-dimensional lithosphere model with horizontal dimensions of 1500 km×600 km and a depth extent of 70 km for the Zagros is constructed from available geophysical data to find out strength of the outermost layers in this area. The structural boundaries of the model are based on the results ...
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A three-dimensional lithosphere model with horizontal dimensions of 1500 km×600 km and a depth extent of 70 km for the Zagros is constructed from available geophysical data to find out strength of the outermost layers in this area. The structural boundaries of the model are based on the results from the deep seismic sounding profiles. First the finite element model for the temperature is solved in order to obtain initial temperature and the geotherm, after that structural viscoelastic problem is solved using the same mesh as in the thermal initial condition. Preliminary results for wet and dry rheology indicate that the depth of the BDT is about 8 km and 11 km for hot geotherm and 10.5 km to14 km for cold geotherm. The results are in good agreement with focal depth in the Zagros that most earthquakes occur in 8 to 15 km depth (Tatar et al., 2004 and Jackson et al., 2008), that the long-term strength of the continental lithosphere resided only in its upper part, which was contained wholly within the crust.
